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Technology Stocks : How high will Microsoft fly? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ToySoldier who wrote (17639)	3/11/1999 10:06:00 AM
From: jim shiau	Respond to of 74651

Toy, >So Jim, you can stick your head in the sand and say that Directory Services will not be a big factor in the industry, but the telcos, ISPs, OEMs, and even MSFT knows that it is VERY IMPORTANT!! I didn't say it isn't important. What I said you were over state the importance. To me your sand world is NOVL and IBM. Please look the following article: NDS: Technical difficulties By Pankaj Chowdhry, PC Week Online March 8, 1999 9:00 AM ET Novell Inc.'s plans for NDS will help the company articulate a strategy--albeit a drawn-out one--for customers. However, as Novell strives to position its Novell Directory Services as the cornerstone of its resurgence, numerous technical hurdles remain. The main technical concern about NDS is its ability to play nice in non-Novell environments. An even more pressing concern--at least for those worried about Novell's financial health--is whether directory services will become a commodity, just as file and print services did. That could doom Novell, particularly if it fails to become a player in the directory-enabled applications market. Going forward, administrators will be most concerned with directory interoperability, not single-point solutions. With last year's major update to NDS for NT (see review), Novell almost did an about-face, offering the ability to host NDS replicas on Windows NT machines. This move is a double-edged sword for Novell, offering an easier NDS installation, but almost obviating NetWare. However, many of the crown jewels in NDS were saved for NetWare and are not supported on NT. NDS for NT has not been fully ported to IP, still requiring the dated IPX protocol for operation. NDS also doesn't support WAN traffic optimization, which will quickly become a must for widely dispersed organizations. Perhaps the most glaring omission is the lack of LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) support in NDS for NT, although LDAP support might spell other troubles for NDS. The trouble with LDAP is that it levels the playing field, forcing all players to a lowest common denominator of functionality. Although LDAP is still immature, lacking such niceties as replication and access control lists, it is ironic that the areas where LDAP is deficient are areas of NDS strength. But this will not prove true for very long. Make no mistake: Creating hierarchical directories is no simple task, as evidenced by Microsoft Corp.'s continuing delays of Windows 2000 and Active Directory, but all directories must speak one common language, which offers little chance for differentiation. With the pending Netscape Communications Corp.-Sun Microsystems Inc. alliance, the pressure will only continue on NDS. Novell will have to embrace and extend the LDAP standard to make NDS worth buying. One must not forget that not only is Novell one of the most seasoned players in the directory space, but it also is an old hand at creating applications that leverage the power of directories. PC Week Labs has continually been impressed with ZENworks, which uses a directory to reduce administration costs and is a perfect example of a directory-enabled application. This is where Novell can add significant value; instead, the company has languished. Building directory-enabled applications and, even more importantly, directory-enabled applications for the Internet is something Novell seems to fear. It has shown some initiative with a directory-enabled BorderManager (see review of BorderManager 3) and its new SQL Integrator (see review) but has not fully utilized its expertise in this area.